Labour has written to the Department of Education demanding to know why
Michael Gove over-ruled his independent advisers when selling off school
playing fields.

Labour has written to the Department of Education demanding to know why Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, over-ruled his independent advisers when selling off school playing fields.

In the letter to Chris Wormald, the senior civil servant at the Department, Stephen Twigg, the shadow education secretary, also expressed concern at misinformation given by about the number of playing fields which had been sold off.

Last night, the Department of Education was forced to apologise after the Daily Telegraph disclosed that it had provided too low a number when asked to state how many fields had been sold since the general election in May 2010.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request last week, it said that 19 had been approved and three remained under consideration. In fact, the true figure was 30, with two outstanding.

The Telegraph also disclosed that Mr Gove had failed to consult the School Playing Fields Advisory Panel when deciding to approve sales in five cases.

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In his letter, Mr Twigg asked Mr Wormald if it "would be considered good ministerial practice to consult with the expert panel?"

He went on: "I am deeply concerned by the fact that the Secretary of State has failed to disclose around a third of the playing field sell-offs that have been approved since the general election.

"In the interest of what the Prime Minister once termed, 'a new era of transparency,' I would ask that you release all submissions and correspondence regarding these disposals, including via private email accounts, so that we can understand why the Secretary of State overruled his own expert panel."

David Simmonds, the Conservative chairman of the Local Government Association's Children and Young People Board, also expressed concern about the sales, and called for greater transparency.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: "We need to make sure this doesn't become a trend. Moving forward, what we need to ensure is that we have an open and transparent process, so that when there is independent advice that is followed, and we don’t have that at the moment.

"So we need to see that, particularly as many schools are taking advantage of becoming academies, being far more autonomous, and are outside of the process anyway."

Mr Simmonds said that safeguards existed to prevent the sale of playing fields, with most sold only for legitimate reasons, such as when a school was closing or being merged.

But, he went on: “With the new school term starting in a few weeks’ time, mums and dads will want to know that their local school has enough playing space, and in the vast majority of schools that will be the case.

"But the Panel was set up in 2001 to provide advice when schools, or local councils, were considering selling off part of a playing field for whatever reason.

“And there are a number of safeguards in place to make sure that the play space remains adequate whatever happens.

"The concern that we have is we want to see an open and transparent process, so that local mums and dads can see when decisions like that are taken what the rationale is, and that there is going to be enough play space so that the future generations of the Olympians and Paralympians that we’ve seen performing so well recently get the opportunities at school to make the most of the sporting chances they get.”

Mr Simmonds admitted that occasionally, schools came under pressure to sell off playing fields in order to fund much needed repairs. He said: “I think it’s for ministers to give account of why they took individual decisions. But in the case of local councils making proposals it will always be either because a school has closed, or has been merged with another school.

"Or, in the most difficult situations where schools have perhaps been waiting for funding that hasn’t been forthcoming from government for urgent repairs, feel they have no option but to bring forward a part of the land that they own and sell that to make sure that the school can continue to function.”